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Dispute gives impetus to Czech presidency priority

The recent gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine has sharpened focus on energy security, highlighting the need for improved infrastructure, greater diversity of supply and better co-ordination within the EU.

The Czech government had identified improving the security of energy supplies as a main priority of its six-month presidency of the European Union even before the dispute between Russia and Ukraine over gas supplies. But the dispute has transformed political thinking on the issue and given impetus to the Czechs’ efforts to advance the dossier.

Writing in last week’s European Voice, Alexandr Vondra, Czech deputy prime minister and minister for European affairs, said: “The task of the presidency now is to use the momentum and political will generated by the crisis.”

Improving stocks and developing crisis response measures will not be easy. The European Commission proposed, in its strategic energy review, published in November, that the level of oil stocks should be harmonised in line with International Energy Agency norms, which require stocks equivalent to 90 days’ worth of imports, whereas the EU’s approach calls for 90 days’ worth of consumption.

The Commission shied away from calling for harmonised rules for gas storage, while storage levels vary enormously from member state to member state. Only Hungary, Italy and Spain are obliged by national law to hold strategic gas stocks, although other countries do have an obligation to supply emergency gas for such circumstances as a prolonged cold spell. One of the difficulties with requiring minimum gas storage is that storing gas costs up to five times as much as it does to store oil.

Emergency response

In response to this month’s gas crisis, EU member states found a variety of ways to help the worst affected countries. Germany and Austria sent gas to Slovakia while Greece helped Bulgaria with some liquefied natural gas. But these possibilities were limited by the lack of infrastructure especially to transport gas from west to east. The Czechs will want to explore and expand the range of mechanisms that can be brought into play during an emergency.

But it seems unlikely, despite the high political importance attached to the energy security debate, that member states will agree any new binding commitments to help each other out in times of crisis. The French government, when it held the presidency in the second half of 2008, wanted a pledge that countries would cut their consumption by 5% to free up supplies for their partners. The suggestion was opposed by Germany and the UK.

Other areas of potential action identified by the European Commission in its strategic energy review were infrastructure needs and the diversification of energy supplies; external energy relations; energy efficiency; and making the best use of the EU’s own energy resources.

New energy interconnectors are a priority and the Czech presidency and the Commission will work on using an additional €1.5 billion in EU funds to pay for energy infrastructure. This will help the EU diversify its supplier countries and transit routes.

Ensuring better co-ordination of external energy relations is a challenge for the EU and many see the preference of countries to strike bilateral supply deals with Gazprom as undermining efforts to forge a more coherent common EU energy policy.

The Commission admitted in its strategy paper in November that “speaking with one voice does not mean a single Community representative for external issues”. Instead, it called for “effective planning and co-ordination to ensure a commonality of both action and message at Community and member state level”.

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